Hell Unleashed
by BlueNeutrino
Summary: Set post BDM. When the Blue Sun Corporation revives a 200 year old abandoned research project from Weyland-Yutani, there are devastating consequences for Mal and his crew. DISCONTINUED
1. The Bug In The Box

_**Hell Unleashed**_

**Summary: Set post BDM. When the Blue Sun Corporation revives a 200 year old abandoned research project from Weyland-Yutani, there are devastating consequences for Mal and his crew.**

**A/N: I've not written anything for a while. I've not had time, to be honest, but when an idea gets into my head and won't go away I can't relax until I've a least got part of it written down, so I wrote all this on the bus ride home from a workshop in London. I'm aware I've not really got the style and characters of _Firefly _down right yet, but it's my first ever _Firefly _fanfic so bear with me; it's going to take practise.**

**I'd like to point out from the start that this is strictly _Alien_-verse. There aren't going to be any predators in this. Or at least there most probably aren't. I'm not ruling it out completely but it seems unlikely. I'm also going to say that this is AU post-Alien 3 to make it fit better with the Firefly timeline, although there may be some elements of Resurrection I incorporate into this (but not the part about Weyland-Yutani being bought out by Wal-Mart. I hated that bit.)  
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**I do plan on making this a multi-chapter fic. I have no idea when I'll be writing more on it, as I've got two other fics supposedly on the go at the moment which I've been neglecting, but I will get round to it. Hope you like how it starts.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Alien. _Nor do I own _Firefly, _but I can promise you that if I did I'd treat it with much more love and affection than Fox has done.**

_**Chapter One – The Bug In The Box**_

The boat was quiet. Silent, almost, save for the low hum of the engine steadily turning. Constantly it rotated, kicking out a trail of light into space as it provided the thrust to keep the ship moving. No one was around to hear it. The mechanic who usually tended the engine was sleeping, as was all of _Serenity_'s crew.

All except for River.

The girl was in the cargo bay, quietly making her way towards the airlock. Her bare feet padded lightly over the floor, her soles tingling where the cool metal made contact with her skin. She liked the sensation. It felt like walking on hard dew-coated grass, but right now she wasn't able to fully enjoy it. She was too distracted looking for the noise. Not _noise _noise - no, the ship was too quiet for that. The _thinking _kind of noise that only she seemed to be able to hear, and that was coming from somewhere in the cargo hold.

Stopping just a few feet in front of the airlock door, River turned to look at a small, squat crate that was set down on the floor and tucked out of the way to one side.

_There, _she thought as she found what she was looking for. _That's what all the noise is. The bug in the box._

That's what River had decided it was. A bug. Even though she couldn't be sure, its thoughts were so primitive and basic and messy that she didn't think it could be much else. It reminded her of a spider. Or a scorpion. That was what she pictured in her head when she thought of it.

Of course, she hadn't actually _seen _what was in the box. None of the crew had. Mal had been very specific about that when he and Jayne had first carried the crate on board five days ago at Persephone.

"_We don't know what's in the box, but we have to deliver it untampered with or we don't get paid. That means nobody opens it."_

Those had been his instructions, but River could tell he wasn't happy about it. She'd seen him replaying his confrontation with their client in his head when he'd brought the crate on board.

"So what's in the box?" Mal had asked, innocently enough at first.

At the question, the client, a Japaneseman with wispy black hair and a crooked jaw, had fixed Mal with a cold stare. "I'm paying you to deliver it for me, Captain Reynolds, not to ask questions."

Mal hadn't been fazed by the display of aggression. "A man ought to know what it is he's letting on his boat," he said, his tone sounding casual enough, but there was a definite underlying steeliness to it. Mal had gotten in trouble enough times from carrying unknown cargo to let it happen again.

The Japaneseman gritted his teeth and glared even harder. "What you are letting on your boat is some very precious cargo of mine," the man said in an accent River might have found funny if it weren't for the fact the man himself was so sinister. "Now you listen, you don't get to know what's in the box; you don't try to open the box; hell, you don't even _look_ at the box too closely. You just make sure it gets to my friends on Copernica in the exact same condition it's in now: safe and untampered with. Understood?"

Mal didn't take kindly to being addressed like that. "No, _you _listen, Mr. Yutani," he responded just as aggressively, "You want me to transport that crate half way across the 'Verse for you, which means keeping it on my boat and around my crew. Now the safety of my crew ain't something I take lightly, so if there's _anything _in there that could cause them or me any harm, you best be honest with me about it."

The Japaneseman's eyes flashed in anger. "I am paying you a damn good fee to deliver this for me, Captain," he spat, "So if not knowing what's in the crate disquiets you, you best say so now and I'll know to take my money elsewhere."

At that, Mal had backed down. Of course he didn't really have much choice. Money was short and jobs were getting harder and harder to come by. He couldn't afford to turn down a payment like the one Kasuke Yutani was offering, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

Mal hadn't said much on the matter, but his discontent with the situation was quite plain to River. She could hear it in his head as loudly as she could hear the bug in the box.

It surprised her how loud it was, actually, the bug. It hadn't been quite so noisy when they first brought it on board. In fact, it had been so quiet River wasn't even sure that there was anything in there at all. But there was. Something quiet. Sleepy. It had been resting at first, but slowly River had heard it wake up. It had gotten louder and more distracting. Particularly tonight. It wouldn't let her sleep, so she'd come to find it. She wanted to know what all the noise was about.

River lowered herself to the floor and knelt in front of the crate. She stared at it for a few moments, listening. There was no change in the chaotic haze of noise coming from the bug.

"Hello," River said simply.

There seemed to be a change then: some flicker of coherence among the random blur of noise. The bug could hear her. It knew she was there.

River leant in closer to the crate and pressed her ear to the metal, trying to pry apart the scrambled mess of thought into strings of meaning.

_Dark._

That much she could make out. Everything was dark. The bug's world had always been dark.

_Confined. Smothered. A burning need to break out._

River felt herself being drawn further in. The bug's emotions seemed to seep through into her own mind, forming patterns she recognised, being translated into human thoughts she could understand.

_A shell. An egg. A cool yolk of mucus and acid enveloping her._

River shivered.

_Survive. Reproduce._

The basic instincts of every living creature, burning so strongly in the bug's mind.

_Kill._

The intensity of that took her by surprise. Such ferocity. A burning, primal viciousness that seemed to define everything about the bug's existence. It knew she was there and what it wanted was to kill her.

_Survive. Reproduce. KILL._

No, it wanted more than just to _kill _her, River realised.

It wanted to force its way inside her. To invade her. Violate her. Tear her to pieces and break out of her from the inside…

With a scream River leapt back from the crate, shocked by what she'd just felt. So this was what had been lying dormant in the crate for five days. This _shong meng de gwau_. But now it was fully awake; River could hear it, louder than ever. She knew what it wanted. It wanted to hurt her; to hurt _all _of them.

But she wouldn't let it.

With a yell of anger River suddenly kicked the crate, applying her foot with just the right force and angle to send it hurtling across the floor towards the airlock. It collided with the door with a loud clang before coming to a stop.

River darted across to the controls to the airlock, her mind completely focussed.

_It wants to be let out, _she thought. _Then I'll let it out. Squish the bug. Whoosh._

She hit the button to begin opening the outer airlock door.

_Pressure drop across the airlock will be sufficient to suck out the crate in point two six seconds, _River thought as the hatch lowered. _Allowing a four point three eight second window in which to restablise pressure. Adequate time to ensure safety of all on board. Squish. Bug dead._

The outer hatch had fully descended now, and River turned her attention to the button that opened the inner door. The noise from the bug was so loud. Vicious and dangerous. It had to be silenced.

She was just reaching out to press the button when she felt her hand be suddenly snatched away, and heard a familiar voice shouting her name.

"River!"

**Chinese translations:**

_shong meng de gwau – _vicious monster

**A/N: That felt a tad choppy, if I'm honest. Partly because it wasn't written in the ideal circumstances, and mostly because I'm just not used to writing River. I'm not too sure how to approach it. I don't know how logical or how seemingly random to make her. Like I said, it'll take practise, although next time I'm likely not to write things so much from River's perspective.**

**So, hope you liked it and I'll try and work on an update. **


	2. Unsettled

**A/N: Sorry this is a bit short. Really, I shouldn't be writing this. I need to study quite urgently, but I just can't let this drop. So I've just written this little bit and I really ought to get back to work now.**

**Dislaimer: Same as before. Firefly and Alien are not mine.  
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_**Chapter Two – Unsettled**_

It wasn't the scream that had woken Simon. Actually, he wasn't too sure what it was, but there was something that was unsettling him. Call it brotherly instinct, maybe, but he'd found that once again a niggling sense of worry for River had rendered him unable to sleep peacefully. He couldn't even pinpoint exactly what was causing him such unease, but when he'd woken early with that strange sense of foreboding present in his mind, he'd immediately made the decision to leave Kaylee sleeping in bed, thrown on some pants and a shirt, and gone to check on his sister.

When he'd reached River's room to find she wasn't there the feeling of worry immediately intensified, but he forced himself to stay calm. It wasn't the first time she'd gone walkabout while the rest of them were sleeping, and he knew she was quite capable of taking care of herself when the situation called for it. But still, something about this felt wrong.

He briefly considered waking Kaylee or the others to help look for her, but then decided against it. There was no point getting them all out of bed when he didn't even know for sure that there was actually a problem. This wasn't likely to be another Jubal Early situation – bounty hunters wouldn't come after him and River now that the Alliance no longer had a price on their heads, and even if someone _was _after River she could easily incapacitate them in three seconds flat. Everything was probably perfectly fine, Simon reasoned with himself. River might have just been unable to sleep and gone for a walk. But he still needed to find her, just to be sure.

The first place he looked was the bridge. With River having taken over from Wash as _Serenity_'s pilot the bridge had become one of her favourite places to be. She loved to be up there, even when they were just cruising through space and there wasn't much for her to do other than look out at the stars and planets around them. But she wasn't doing that right now. Simon had found the bridge to be empty, and so had immediately gone on to check the engine room. River wasn't there either.

An irrationally strong sense of panic was beginning to settle on him as he made the decision to search the cargo bay, but he forced himself to suppress it. _She's fine, _he told himself. _I can't find her but she can't possibly have left the ship. As long as __she's on board _Serenity _she's safe. _He wasn't entirely sure how true that was, but it helped him to focus on that. He'd be better able to find her if he could just stay calm and think rationally.

It was just as he stepped out onto one of the upper catwalks that he heard the scream.

That was when the panic had finally kicked in. Looking down at the hold below him Simon could make out River's slender shape standing by the airlock, and he saw she was staring at one of the cargo crates with a look of horror on her face. He didn't have time to think what the reason for that might be before he darted down the stairs to reach the floor, calling out her name as he did so. She didn't seem to hear him, but there was a loud clanging noise as she kicked the crate into the airlock door. Just as Simon reached the bottom of the steps River dashed over to the controls for the airlock, hitting the button to open the outer hatch.

Wondering what in the 'Verse she was doing, Simon ran to her and grabbed hold of her just before she was able to open the inner airlock door. "River!" he shouted again.

This time she seemed to hear him and spun round to face him, breaking his grip on her arm. "Simon?" She seemed surprised to see him.

"River, what are you…?" he began to ask, but River shook her head and spoke over him in an urgent tone.

"We have to get rid of it, Simon. The bug is bad."

Simon didn't know what she meant, but he recognised the urgency in her tone. It was the kind of urgency stemming from horror and fear. This was how she'd sounded when she'd talked about Miranda, and Simon knew that whatever she had to say he would have to take seriously. "Bug?"

"It wants to hurt you, Simon."

That didn't make any more sense that what she'd said previously, but he doubted she was going to explain it in any way he'd be able to understand. "River, why were you trying to open the airlock?"

"Squish the bug. Suck it into space. It can't hurt us there."

"What bug?" Simon asked again, still confused.

River didn't say anything in answer, but instead she pointed towards the crate she'd kicked up against the airlock door. Simon turned to look at it, and recognised it as the crate they were supposed to be delivering to Mr. Yutani's contacts on Copernica: the one they weren't supposed to open.

Simon frowned, realising that this probably was indeed something bad, and turned back to his sister. "Bug? Is that what's in there?"

She nodded.

"What kind of a bug?"

River didn't have time to answer before they heard a voice shout out from behind them. "What the gorram hell is going on?"


	3. Trouble Again

**A/N: I really, really ought to be studying, yet I can't seem to tear myself away from this. I really want to get to the action part, but it seems to be taking a while to get there. It probably won't even be next chapter, but I'm hoping it'll be soon. I have lots of stuff planned for this story that I can't wait to write.**

**On another note, most Firefly fans are probably aware of this, but it's canon as going by the supplementary comic books that Zoe is pregnant by the end of the Serenity movie. Therefore, as I'm the kind of person who likes to stick with canon as much as possible, she is going to be pregnant in this story. **

**I've also decided that Inara decided to stay on board Serenity after the events of the movie. I considered having her go back to the training house for the sake of making the plot less complicated, but then I decided she could have an important role to play in this so I left her in. I'm toying with an idea for her later on which I'm not sure I'll go through with yet, but for now she's back in her shuttle.  
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**Disclaimer: I don't like doing disclaimers every single chapter when really it's exactly the same as the disclaimer I wrote on the first chapter, so this is the last time I'm saying it: Alien and Firefly are not mine.**

_**Chapter Three – Trouble Again**_

Simon turned to see Mal standing on one of the catwalks at the back of the bay, looking down on them with an expression of angry bewilderment. He was barefoot and his hair was sticking up in messy tufts, suggesting he'd run here straight from getting out of bed. Judging from the way only two buttons on his shirt had been done up it had clearly been flung on in a hurry, but there had been time enough for him to grab his officer's pistol which he now had in hand. The gun was lowered towards the floor and not pointing at Simon and River, but the fact Mal had brought it at all showed he'd been expecting trouble. And now he was expecting an explanation.

Simon didn't have time to give him one before Jayne appeared beside Mal, his own weapon raised and looking ready for a fight. Upon noticing River and Simon, Jayne lowered the gun and gave them a disgruntled glare. "Might'a known it was you and that crazy sister of yours causing trouble again, Doc," he said irritably. "Now I appreciate River flying the boat for us an' all, but could you tell her to keep the yelling and banging down while the rest of us are sleeping?" At that point Jayne seemed to notice they were standing by the controls to the door, and his eyes widened slightly. "Wait, was she trying to suck us out the airlock?"

Simon didn't answer immediately, knowing that telling them River had in fact been trying to open the airlock might mean even more trouble. However, as he tried to think how to respond River gave Jayne an exasperated look and answered for him. "The vacuum pressure wouldn't be enough to suck solid matter out of the crew quarters," she said, as if that much as obvious. "Only air."

Jayne glared at her. "So she was try'n'a suffocate us," he said, "Either way, looks like we was near dead 'cause of her. Again."

Simon held his breath. Even though he thought Jayne had begun to warm to River more since Miranda, the mercenary still hadn't fully gotten over the time River had attacked him with a knife. Or the time after that when she'd knocked him out in a bar fight. Her doing something like this now really didn't help things.

"Gorramit, Doc, why now? Eight weeks she's been acting almost normal, so why are we back to this again?," Mal said, looking from Jayne to Simon to River as if he were at a loss what to do. Which he probably was. Mal needed River to fly the boat, and he couldn't have her reverting back to her previous levels of crazy.

"She's been more stable, certainly," Simon began to say in an attempt to stop tensions escalating further, "But after what they did to her her mind's still in a fragile state. Even without the secret of Miranda it doesn't mean there aren't other things that could trigger a reaction like this."

Mal looked like he didn't like that answer one bit. "That so? Because if these relapses are gunna be a frequent thing you ought to have made that clear to me, Doc. I thought she was so supposed to be getting better."

"She is," Simon said, wishing he knew how to explain everything rationally, but in truth he couldn't understand River's behaviour any more than they did. "But it's not going to be a smooth ride. There's a long way for her to go yet."

Mal nodded in acceptance of what Simon had said, but he was still struggling to understand. "But what happened?" he asked. "River, what got you so spooked that you had to start yellin' and try'n'a get the airlock open?"

River looked up at him with wide eyes. Simon thought that she still seemed scared, but he was reassured by the fact that despite being angry about the situation Mal still seemed concerned for her. "It's the bug," River answered him simply.

Both Mal and Jayne looked completely bewildered by that. Simon too was still confused. "Bug?" Mal repeated.

"In the box. It's trying to get out." River said matter-of-factly.

Mal looked over at the crate she'd kicked up against the airlock, and Simon saw his expression darken as he realised it was their cargo bound for Copernica. "You know what's in the box? You opened it?" Mal asked, not sounding too pleased.

River shook her head. "No, it was making noise," she answered, as if that explained how she knew what it was.

There was a pause as they all listened for the noise River was referring to, but they couldn't hear anything. "Don't sound noisy to me," Jayne commented.

Mal looked to Simon for clarification, clearly not understanding what River had meant at all. "Doc, care to explain what your sister's on about?"

"I think that maybe... she means psychic noise?" Simon replied, but he didn't sound too sure of himself.

It was Jayne who spoke next, in a tone that was a mixture of confused and derisive. "You're telling me we've got a psychic bug on board?"

Simon was about to say something in response to that, but then there was the sound of another voice speaking as someone else appeared behind Jayne.

"What's going on? I heard shouting." It was Kaylee. Simon noticed she was wearing green pyjamas, which he was certain she hadn't had on when he left her, but he didn't have time to lend much thought to that before he saw Zoe appear beside her.

"Is everything alright, Captain?" she said, addressing Mal before glancing down at Simon and River with a slight frown.

Simon thought she looked tired. Zoe's left hand was cradling the slight swell of her belly – prominent enough now that her pregnancy was three months along – and she was bleary eyed, despite trying not to show how exhausted she was. Her fatigue was understandable. The morning sickness pills Simon was prescribing her had the side effect of drowsiness, but Simon knew it was more than just that. She was still struggling to come to terms with the loss of Wash. Really, her pregnancy should be some of the happiest months of her life, but how could she really enjoy it when her husband wasn't there to go through it all with her?

Although she was still trying to put on the front of the tough Zoe they all knew, it was still apparent to all of them just how hard Wash's death had hit her. The grief was taking its toll on her, and combined with natural anxiety over the pregnancy, she really didn't need anything more to be worrying about on top of that. So of course, the fiercely protective Mal would _not _be happy that something like this had happened to stress her out even further.

"Everything's fine, Zoe," Mal answered, for once not wanting her to get involved. Although normally he would let her know about everything important that happened on _Serenity_, at the current time he didn't want to tell her that their pilot had just attempted to suck them out of the airlock before even he was sure what had happened. "River seems to have taken a dislike to some of our cargo, is all. It's nothing I can't deal with. You and Kaylee go back to bed."

Zoe gave him a stern, _don't-you-patronise-me_ sort of look. "Captain, I'm pregnant, not stupid. Now tell me what's going on."

Mal was about to insist that he could handle it, but then realised there was no point trying to keep something like this from Zoe. Even though his instincts were telling him to protect her, like they had been ever since he'd found out she was pregnant, the rational part of his mind knew that the last thing Zoe wanted was special treatment from him. She wouldn't appreciate him trying to hide things from her, even if he thought he was doing it for the best of reasons. Mal was about to give her a proper answer when another voice sounded from the opposite end of the catwalk. "I thought I heard something. What are you all doing out here?"

They all turned to see Inara approaching them, apparently having just stepped out of her shuttle to find the source of the disturbance. Even in her nightdress and not wearing make-up she still looked as lovely as ever. Her delicate features were set in an expression of confusion and, like the rest of the crew, she appeared to want to know what was happening.

"Inara," Mal said, preparing to explain things to her, and then realised that he himself didn't really known what was going on. "I, um…well, I'm not sure what we're doing. You'll have to ask Simon and River."

Inara looked at him for a moment and then glanced down into the cargo hold. Upon noticing Simon and River standing at the bottom, she began to make her way to the stairs that led down to the floor. "Alright, I'll ask them. Why's the airlock open?" she said calmly as she began to descend the steps.

Simon was just about to give some kind of an answer to that, but was cut off by a sudden exclamation from Kaylee.

"The airlock's open?" she said, her eyes widening slightly as she turned to look for herself. Upon noticing she could indeed see the stars through the window in the inner door, she let out a quiet, "Oh."

Inara nodded. "Yes, the outer hatch appears to be down. Simon, aren't you going to close it?" she said as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh…yes," Simon replied, realising he hadn't had the presence of mind to do that yet. He reached out to hit the button to bring the hatch back up, and River pulled away from him, looking frustrated.

"You're all too _close _now. Should've stayed sleeping," she whined.

Mal and the others followed Inara's lead and began to head down to the floor of the cargo bay. Simon looked from them back to River, hoping that there was some kind of explanation for this that would make sense. "River, what were you trying to do?" he asked her gently, wishing she'd give him a coherent answer.

To his dismay, she didn't seem to want to give him much of an answer at all. "Get rid of it!" she shouted, pointing at the crate. "Simon, we _have _to get rid of it." That was all she seemed prepared to say, but Simon still couldn't understand _why _she wanted to get rid of it. And what did she mean by 'the bug'?

The others had reached them by now, and Mal and Jayne in particular didn't look too happy. Mal met Simon's gaze, his eyes hard, but Simon got the impression he was thinking something that he wasn't letting on. "Am I to understand that she was trying to throw the cargo that's going to make us a fine sum of money out into space?" Mal said, as if requesting clarification.

Simon let out a slow breath before answering. He didn't much _want _to have to tell them that if it meant even more trouble, but it appeared to be the truth. "Yes, it seems that way."

At that answer Jayne shot him a glare. "Well you best tell her she can't do that, Doc," he said aggressively, but Mal put up a hand to quiet him.

"Jayne, wait."

Jayne gave a confused scowl, unable to understand why Mal now appeared to be taking Simon's side. "That's the best money we've been offered in ages, Captain. We can't just let her…"

Zoe interjected. "Jayne, I think we ought to give River chance to explain."

The mercenary's scowl deepened even further. "Explain? She's crazy. Ain't gunna get no sensical explanation outta her."

Zoe wasn't fazed. She was used to dealing with Jayne's often obtuse aggressiveness. "But she knew about Miranda," Zoe explained. "She knows things the rest of us don't – or _can't _– know. If she thinks there's something bad about whatever it is that's in that box, then it may be in our best interests to listen."

Jayne remained scowling and was about to protest to Mal, but upon seeing the expression on the captain's face he instead settled for grumbling, "Fine, you listen to her talk crazy if you want. Just make sure she don't think to do something that might get us all killed again." That final part was directed with a glare at Simon, who glared right back, but neither of them said anything further. Although the atmosphere was still tense, it seemed that now Jayne had said what he wanted to say he was prepared to shut up and let River talk.

Zoe and Mal exchanged glances. They'd known each other long enough to not have to say it out loud, but Zoe knew Mal was grateful that she'd spared him the trouble of being the one who had to deal with Jayne. Neither of them had any clue as to what had just happened with River, but they both knew Jayne's hostile attitude could only make things worse. Mal gave Zoe the slightest nod of thanks before he turned his attention back to River. "Right. So River, you gunna tell us what in that box is so bad you want to throw it out the airlock?"

"The bug," River stated simply, repeating what she'd said earlier without any further explanation.

Mal looked over at Simon as if asking him to translate what that meant, but judging by the blank expression he got in return Simon clearly didn't know either. There was a moment's pause during which Mal gave Simon a look that clearly showed his frustration, before he went back to trying to coax more of an explanation from River.

"And what is the bug? What does that mean?" he asked her.

River fixed him with a hard stare, her expression blank but with an intense, burning look in her eyes. "The bug is dangerous. And if we don't get rid of it, the only outcome is going to be death."

**End note: The characters are all a little off. I can tell they are, but this is my first ever attempt at writing them so it may take a few more chapters and a few more times rewatching Firefly until I get the hang of it. I'm hoping that by the time I get stuck into the action and the main plot of the story that it'll work better. These first few chapters are meant as more of a warm-up and to establish the setting; the 'meat' of the story is going to start in one or two chapters time. I have a lot of stuff planned with the aliens and the Alliance and going into what happened to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation after the mass exodus from Earth-That-Was, so if you've found the pace of this a bit slow so far then please hold out for that, because I think I can and will do better.**

**As always, reviews would be much appreciated if anyone cares to leave one.**


	4. Catch 22

_**Chapter Four – Catch 22  
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There was a moment's silence as everybody processed what River had just said. Mal looked at her with an expression that was a combination of surprise, curiosity and unease. He clearly hadn't been expecting an answer that was quite so sinister. "Well, that don't sound good," he said after a pause, looking from River to the crate and giving a slight frown.

Kaylee spoke up next. "Cap'n, I'm not sayin' River trying to open the airlock weren't dangerous and all, but she was just trying to help us. If whatever in there's so bad perhaps we did ought to get rid of it?"

Mal was still looking at the box with an uneasy expression. "I know, Kaylee, but it ain't that simple," he replied, and seemed about to say more when Jayne interrupted again.

"Look, that was all very ominous-sounding, but if she ain't gunna tell us any more than that," he ranted, gesturing at River, "Then I don't think the ramblings of a crazy girl are enough to justify tossing the payload. Unless of course, Captain, you found another source of income this month that you ain't tellin' us about."

Jayne was glaring fiercely at Mal, and at that point the captain rounded on him with a look that was equally intense. "I hear you, Jayne," Mal said darkly, "But I ain't about to risk everybody's life for a box that we don't know the contents of, no matter how good the pay is. My guess is the reason we got offered so much for this job is because whatever's in there's dangerous, and if that turns out to be the case then I won't hesitate to get rid of it."

"Oh yeah?" Jayne said, squaring up to him, "Well it's been on board five days and the most dangerous thing that's happened in that time is River here going berserk just now, so unless anybody can tell me _what _exactly is in there I say we take our chances and just get the gorram thing to Copernica."

Mal glared at him, but for a few moments didn't say a word. Nobody else spoke, the atmosphere too tense for them to want to interfere in the two men's conflict, but after a few seconds Mal turned to River and said quite calmly. "River, why don't you tell us what about the bug's so dangerous?"

Everybody's attention turned to River at that point, Jayne looking at her quite sceptically. She stared right back at him. "I can't see it," she answered, "Only hear it."

"Well, that gives us a lot to go on," Jayne remarked sarcastically, but River continued talking.

"I can hear it wants to kill us," she said, her voice rising slightly in pitch. "It's angry; it doesn't like being contained. It wants to get out."

Mal and Jayne exchanged glances again, Jayne still not looking convinced, and then River said, "It sounds like Reavers."

Jayne's eyes widened. That one word was enough to send a chill through all of them. None of them spoke for several seconds, and then it was Simon who swallowed and managed to ask his sister. "How do you mean?"

"Violent. Not human," she replied, her own voice sounding scared.

Mal looked at her, and then cast his gaze over the others before fixing his attention on the box. "Right," he said determinedly, before purposefully striding over to the crate and kneeling down beside it.

"Don't stand too close!" River suddenly yelled at him, and he looked at her in surprise, a little taken aback by the suddenness of her outburst. Then his expression darkened and he brought up his pistol to point at the crate.

"It's solid steel," he said, "If anything does try to get out I'll have plenty of chance to shoot it first." He leant in closer to the crate and seemed to be studying it carefully.

Sounding nervous, Inara spoke up, "Mal, if you think it's that dangerous don't do anything stupid."

"We can't do nothing until we know what it is, Inara," he responded, deliberately not commenting on the 'doing something stupid' part. "There's a living creature in there, right?" he said, looking at River, who nodded. "But we've had it on board five days and it's only just started bothering River. So why now?"

He looked at the others for suggestions. It was Simon who responded first. "It's possible it was hibernating," he said, "Hibernation is usually seasonal planetside; being in space could be enough to disrupt its cycle and cause it to wake early."

Mal looked at him and frowned, trying to make sense of the situation, but Zoe had something to add. "That still doesn't help us work out what it is," she said, "Or _why _Mr. Yutani is paying so much to transport it to Copernica for him. Captain, do we even know who we're delivering it to?" she asked.

Mal shook his head grimly. "No, we've just been given a rendezvous point," he answered her, and the look exchanged between them clearly showed how suspicious they both were.

Jayne was still reluctant to back down, although he certainly seemed much more uncomfortable with the idea of having the crate on board now that River had brought up Reavers. "Look, I know this don't seem good," he said, "But it's less than twenty four hours to Copernica now. If this thing's been fine for five days can't we just get it to the rendezvous point, collect the money, and then be rid of it? It's not like we have to keep it on board much longer."

Both Mal and Zoe gave him admonishing looks. "And then what, Jayne?" Mal said, "Leave it to do harm to everyone on that moon? 'Cause I ain't gunna be the one responsible for that."

Jayne fixed him with a confrontational glare. "You don't even know _what _it's gunna do," he snapped back, "You're just making guesses based on River saying stuff that's a bit creepifying. Now yeah, that disturbs me too, but look at the crate, Mal. It ain't even big enough for us to for us to fit Kaylee in there. Whatever's in it might be dangerous enough to us if we keep it on the boat too much longer, but I doubt it's big enough to bring harm to an entire moon."

Mal continued to glare at him, but he could understand why Jayne was reluctant to just let them throw away their next pay cheque. Perhaps the risk for a few more hours would be worth it if it meant they'd be guaranteed to afford food for the next two months. Of course, that was assuming Mr. Yutani's contacts could be trusted to pay them at all.

"Captain?" Zoe was speaking to him, and Mal turned to look at her.

"What is it?"

"You got the job from a Mr. Yutani, right?"

Mal nodded, thinking he knew where this might be going. "Yeah."

"You remember the company Weyland-Yutani?"

Mal did remember it, but Inara beat him to replying. "Weyland-Yutani? They were one of the main companies that terraformed the 'Verse after the exodus from Earth-That-Was. You think they're related to this?" She seemed both surprised and confused as to what Zoe's thought processes might be.

"They weren't just a terraforming company," Zoe explained, "They manufactured weapons during the war. Started out supplying to both sides, as I recall, before they signed a contract with the Alliance. Now the war may be over, but that don't mean weapons aren't still in demand. And since the Alliance were the winning side the company's best profit would come..."

"From staying in business with them," Mal finished, understanding what Zoe was getting at, although it still didn't make complete sense to him.

Zoe gave a nod. "Captain, I ain't no expert on that company's history, but I remember they got in trouble for some illegal organic-weapons experiment some time ago. I don't know the details, but it was some kind of Government sponsored project that they tried to cover up. Now, could just be coincidence that your guy's called Yutani, but with that company's reputation I'd say it weren't impossible that the were doing something like that again. If so they'd be looking for someone like us to transport dangerous cargo, and I'd also say it weren't impossible that the Alliance are in on it."

It was possible, Mal had to admit that, but he still felt that explanation didn't quite fit. "But Zoe, you didn't meet this Yutani guy," he said. "I don't think he's in with the Alliance. He ain't some high-class core world businessman, just a crime lord that's gotten rich off of the work of others. No different to Badger, except the accent's even funnier."

Zoe was still looking at him grimly. "But what if that's exactly what they wanted you to think, Mal?" she said, "That's company's taken Government money and used it for illegal things before. If Yutani _did _have a contract to develop weapons for the Alliance then they wouldn't want anybody to know about it, which means there's no way he'd let on to you what's in the box. Plus, he couldn't afford to pay us so highly for this unless that money came from a large company or the Alliance."

Mal was inclined to agree with her, but then Inara put in something else. "Except that doesn't make sense," she said, "For one thing, Weyland-Yutani isn't actually owned by people called Weyland _or _Yutani anymore, it changed hands over a century ago. And if the Alliance _were _involved I really doubt they'd be getting _you _of all people to transport their cargo for them. There's something else going on here, although that doesn't bring us any closer to finding out _what _exactly is in that box."

Realising she was right, Mal let out a sigh of frustration. "No, it doesn't," he said, "And we ain't gunna know unless we open it."

At that point a tense silence fell upon the room. After a moment Kaylee said, "You ain't gunna open it, are you Cap'n? I mean, not after what River's said might be in there."

Mal looked at her. "No, I ain't," he answered, "I can't open it because I don't know what's in there, but I can't do nothin' with it unless I find out." He was sounding increasingly exasperated, and understandably so. The situation seemed to be a catch 22. Keeping the crate on board could be dangerous, but if there _was _a formidable company like Weyland-Yutaniinvolved, then failing to deliver to their clients could be just as risky. "Now I'm trusting River on this," Mal said, addressing all of them, "She's been right before and if she thinks there's something bad in this box I'm gunna take her seriously. But if we throw this crate out now then we stand a lot to lose."

"Yeah, a _lot_," Jayne remarked, and Mal shot him a hard look.

"I don't just mean the money, Jayne. If Zoe's right and the Alliance or their weapon suppliers are involved in this somehow, then we could be pissing off some very powerful people. I'm sure I don't need to spell out what route that could go down."

"So what are we going to do then, Captain?" Zoe asked, sounding like she wouldn't like the answer whatever Mal said.

Mal looked over at her, seeming like he honestly had no idea what to do, but he was spared having to make a decision by the sound of an alarm going off in the cargo bay.

River looked up. "Proximity alert," she said, recognising the noise.

Mal turned to look at her, seemingly now even more frustrated than ever by the unfortunate timing. "Alright, Zoe and I will see to that," he said, the pair of them beginning to head back towards the centre of the ship. "Kaylee, can you go the engine room, make sure we're ready to get moving if we have to. And River…" Mal paused as he noticed the way River was still staring transfixed at the crate, but then realised that talking to her would be the only way to snap her out of it. "River, you think you're up for some piloting?" he asked. Although he was more than a little concerned about letting her near the controls after that bizarre episode, everything was happening so quickly he found he wasn't left with many other options. It would be better to have her on standby to fly the ship rather than just him.

She looked over at him. "Of course," she answered, and then stepped away from the crate to walk over to join him and Zoe. "Mustn't let them get too close or we'll get sucked in."

"Right…" Mal said, and then looked at Simon who appeared to be following her. He was about to tell him not to, but then realised than Simon was actually going with Kaylee instead. The mechanic was heading off to the engine room, as instructed, but she was still casting nervous glances back at the box. She looked worried. Mal decided it was best to let Simon go with her.

That left Inara and Jayne. "Jayne, Inara, keep an eye on that box. Make sure whatever's in it don't do nothing," Mal called back as he, River and Zoe almost reached the exit.

"Sure thing," Jayne replied, giving the box a hostile scowl and bringing his gun up slightly.

Inara looked over at Mal just as he was about to leave, but she didn't have chance to say anything before he'd turned and was out the door. She let out a sigh of frustration. That was just like him. He must have known she wanted to go with him and find out what was going on, but instead he'd instructed her to stay here with Jayne, even though having two of them watch the box wasn't strictly necessary. In a way that hurt. It felt like he was keeping her at arm's length. Like he'd been trying to distance himself from her ever since she'd decided to stay on board after that business with Miranda. And Inara couldn't work out why.

Not that she had much chance to think on it at a time like this.

"So," Jayne was saying, "What d'you think's in there?" He rapped on the box with the butt of his gun, causing a hollow, metallic sound to reverberate through the room.

Inara gave him a slightly disapproving frown. "I don't know, Jayne, but if it's dangerous I don't think you should be knocking on the box like that."

He shrugged. "Why not? Might give us some clue as to what this bug thing is." He tapped on the box again.

"Jayne…" Inara began to protest, but then stopped as she heard another sound. This one coming from inside the box.

She and Jayne exchanged glances. Inara looked nervous, whereas Jayne seemed quite satisfied. "See," he said, and then leant over the box and landed three more knocks on its surface.

Inara listened, and there was no mistaking the three knocks that sounded back.

**End note: Apologies that was another dialogue-heavy chapter with not a lot of action, but I promise we're getting there. I'm also still a little dissatisfied with the way I've written the characters, but I think I'm just struggling with establishing the story in general. I've actually written a few chapters for later in the story well in advance and I'm finding them much easier, but I think that's because I have a much clearer idea of what's going to happen. Hold out just a little bit longer and some full blown xenomorph chaos will be on its way.**

**Also a note about Weyland-Yutani supplying weapons during the Unification War – if you watch the pilot episode of _Firefly _at the point where Mal's on the AA gun you can see the Weyland-Yutani logo in the top centre of the screen, so I've decided that WY are a canon-complicit part of the 'Verse. Also, the WY slogan is "Building Better Worlds", which sounds awfully similar to some things the Operative said in the BDM. I thought that makes an interesting crossover element.  
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	5. Offloading

**A/N: I'm not sure why, but despite knowing exactly what I want to happen I found this chapter insanely difficult to write. It took me two hours to write 600 words, and I'm still not entirely happy with the end result, so sorry if it's not very good. I've worked out that the xenomorphs aren't going to make an appearance for another couple of chapters, but I'm hoping that by the end of this chapter or the next one it's going to be clear how they become a threat.**

**Updated A/N: This is a partially rewritten version of the chapter thanks to a review I received from JoeEngland, who pointed out that some aspects of the original were somewhat implausible. I've made a few alterations which I hope make the events in this chapter more believable. I also intend to address the point he made about River, but in a later chapter which will explain how and why things worked out this way.  
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_**Chapter Five – Offloading**_

They were just about to reach the steps to the bridge when the message radioed over the ship's loudspeakers. "Firefly class ship _Serenity, _this is Captain Hallerton of the Alliance capital vessel _Meridian. _You are ordered to hold course and prepare for boarding."

Up until that point none of them had suspected that they might've run into the Alliance, but immediately after the message finished the three of them stopped walking and exchanged worried glances with each other."Ok, if that's the Alliance, why are we still flying?" Mal said, not understanding why they hadn't been blown out of the sky yet. In the two months since Miranda they'd managed to steer clear of Alliance vessels, but Mal had thought that if they did run into them again they were pretty much done for.

"I don't know, sir," Zoe said, looking equally confused and apprehensive, "But if they're looking to board us then maybe they think we've got something on the ship that they want."

Mal looked at her grimly. "You mean like that crate?" he said, "'Cause that's the only thing we've picked up recently that isn't food or ammo."

Zoe nodded. "A mysterious crate with some unidentified dangerous creature in? I can see the Alliance wanting to get hold of that."

"Yeah, I can see them wanting to get hold of it too," Mal responded, "What I can't see so much is how they know we've got it on board, or why _we _just happen to be the ones carrying it. Even when I deliberately avoid taking jobs that involve stealing Alliance goods it seems I end up running into them anyway."

"Maybe we're just real unlucky, sir," Zoe said dryly, although she agreed with him that there was something off about the situation.

"This ain't just coincidence," Mal continued, "If they've not started shooting at us yet then there's something else going on here." He then turned to River. "River, you're a reader. Any chance you can read them from here? 'Cause it'd be real helpful to me to know what they're after."

River nodded as she understood what he was asking, and then stared at the floor in concentration. As a few seconds passed her expression grew gradually more confused, and then she shook her head. "It doesn't make sense," she said, sounding a little distressed, "None of it makes sense. They're all just...messy."

Mal sighed in frustration, but knew there was nothing he could do to force an explanation from anywhere. "Alright," he said, "Looks like we'll be finding out the hard way then."

He then turned back to Zoe and she gave him a look as if asking for instructions. "So are we going to make a run for it, sir?"

Mal seemed to seriously consider that for a moment, but then slowly shook his head. "No. It's a capital vessel, a warship. We don't have a chance of outrunning it, especially since they're armed and we ain't. For now we'll stay on course and try and find out what they want," he said as he headed to the foot of the steps, but then turned back to look at River. "River, you ain't exactly their favourite person in the 'Verse right now so it might be best you don't talk to them. Wait out here," he instructed as he began to ascend the steps.

"You ain't too popular with them yourself, Captain," Zoe commented as she came up the steps behind him.

"Maybe," Mal responded, "But at least when they talk to me they won't get panicked that I can hear what they're thinkin'. I don't want them knowing she's on board." River had shuffled to one side to wait at the bottom of the steps and Mal and Zoe both stepped through the door into the cockpit. Through the window opposite a large military spacecraft had come into view, and to make matters worse it was flanked by two smaller ships on either side.

"_Go se_," Mal muttered, heading over to the right hand pilot's seat.

"Three ships to intercept one Firefly? Why do you think that is?" Zoe said nervously, eyeing the vessels in front of them with a look of apprehension.

"I don't know," Mal replied, "But I'm certain it ain't good." Before reaching for the comms equipment Mal did up a couple more buttons on his shirt and tried to flatten his hair. He wasn't self conscious, but he didn't want the Alliance knowing that they'd caught them at a time when most of them had been in bed. It made them seem more vulnerable and unprepared, like too much of an easy target, and that was the last impression he wanted to give.

He was just reaching to turn on the video link when Zoe spoke again. "Sir, try not to say anything to piss them off. I know it's fun, but just because they haven't opened fire yet it doesn't mean that they won't."

Mal turned to look at her. "Way I see it Zoe, if they've sent three warships after us they already know exactly what they're gunna do, and nothin' I say is likely to change that. If we do end up being shot out of the sky then I'd at least like to think I pissed them off plenty beforehand."

Turning back to the controls, Mal flicked a switch on the console and the screen in front of him crackled into life to display the image of a man in an Alliance officer's uniform. The man was about Mal's age, maybe slightly older, with close cropped dark hair, cold grey eyes and a high forehead that was creased in a stern frown. "Am I speaking to Captain Reynolds?" the officer said coolly as the visual came into focus.

"Yes," Mal replied, trying to keep his tone neutral despite the worry her felt as to what the captain wanted with them. "I take it you're Captain Hallerton."

"I am," Hallerton replied, eyeing Mal with a cold expression. "And I expect we'll be meeting each other in person shortly. You have something of ours on board that we'd like to collect."

There was a pause before Mal answered as he tried to decide how he ought to play it. He suspected that Hallerton meant the crate, but he wasn't sure if he should let the captain be aware of that. In the end Mal decided it would be best to play ignorant. "Something of yours?" he said, acting innocent. "I'm sorry Captain, but we ain't got any Alliance goods on board. You must be mistaken again, like when you seemed to think River Tam was some sort of property of yours. I can assure you that any thing or any person on this ship don't belong to you, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't waste your time boarding us and just let us be on our way."

In response to that Hallerton's expression of cool disdain turned into an openly hostile glare. The Alliance captain didn't reply immediately but Mal heard Zoe mutter off to his left, "I think that may count as pissing them off."

That had been Mal's intention. Not that he didn't understand the risks of getting on the wrong side of the Alliance, but they were so far on the wrong side of them already that Mal didn't see how stirring up more trouble could hurt.

The expression on Hallerton's face, however, suggested that it could possibly hurt them quite a bit. "Captain Reynolds, did I actually just hear you order us to not waste our time boarding you and let you go?" he said in a tone that seemed dangerously calm, not matching the livid look in his eyes.

Mal met Hallerton's gaze with a cold look. "Not order, no," he said, "Politely request, is more like it."

Hallerton's eyes narrowed. "You really think you're in any position to make requests like that?" he said threateningly.

Mal kept up his impudence, not one to be threatened into submission. "Well, since I _don't _have anything of yours on board I hardly think I'm being unreasonable."

Hallerton's eyes flashed dangerously for a moment, but then he seemed to calm himself and spoke in a very controlled tone. "But of course you _would _say that if you had our property on board," he said, "Although I will give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps it is _you _who is mistaken, Captain. I think it's possible that you may not realise what you are carrying belongs to us." Before Mal had chance to ask what that was Hallerton added with a sneer, "Oh, and how is River by the way, since you mention her? Still travelling with you?"

Mal gave a glare in return. "She ain't a fugitive anymore, which means it ain't any of your business _where _she is.

Hallerton just shrugged. "Maybe not, although it would seem odd that after you went to so much trouble to keep her from us she would leave your ship now. You made our lives rather difficult on that account, Captain Reynolds, and we certainly don't appreciate you leaking classified information to the entire 'Verse. If there weren't other pressing matters that I have to deal with I would happily arrest you for it now, but at this moment in time that isn't my priority. It may be possible for you to begin making amends for all that trouble if you were to just hand over to us what we want."

The more Hallerton said the more Mal's suspicions grew. The Alliance captain had just practically admitted that he wasn't about to come after _Serenity_, which meant that whatever they were carrying meant more to the Alliance that getting revenge. Mal wondered what could possibly be so important to them that they'd even give up hunting him down to get it. "Which is what?" Mal snapped, sick of trying to guess what was happening and just wanting a straight answer. "All we've got on board is food supplies and cargo we transporting for…"

"A Mr. Kasuke Yutani," Hallerton finished, and in his surprise Mal shut up. The Alliance captain smirked at him. "Yes, we know who he is. We have certain dealings with him. The cargo you're delivering is due to reach our people on Copernica some time in the next twenty four hours, but we thought we'd save you the trouble of taking it all the way there and collect it out here."

Mal remained silent, his mind going into overdrive as he tried to work out what was going on. He heard Zoe coming closer to him and he glanced over at her with a look as if to say _you were right. _Turning back to the camera, he put on a polite but dangerous smile. "Really, Captain, that's very thoughtful of you but we need to dock on Copernica anyway to refuel and all. It won't be any trouble to us to deliver it ourselves."

"Is that so?" Hallerton said coolly, "Because the planet Rhodes is about four hours closer than Copernica if you were needing to refuel. It sounds to me like you're trying to avoid being boarded. Perhaps you _do _have something else on board that you don't want us to know about?"

Mal continued to glare at him, aware of how dangerous the situation was becoming but not wanting to back down. Zoe had appeared behind him and was looking at the screen over his shoulder. "Tell us what's in the crate," she shot at Hallerton in a no-nonsense tone.

Hallerton looked at her, and raised an eyebrow as he noticed she was dressed for bed. "I'm sorry, Captain," he said, still addressing Mal and avoiding the question, "Did we catch you at a bad time?"

"Not at all," Zoe replied, forcing him to pay attention to her, "Now answer me.

Hallerton gave a smile, but his eyes flashed dangerously. "What is in that crate is classified information," he said, "And since we are about to take it off you it certainly isn't anything you need to worry about. Now, prepare your ship for boarding. I'm extending my docking equipment now and I'll be down there with an escort to collect the cargo in five minutes."

The captain seemed to think that he'd ended the conversation with those orders, but Mal wasn't finished. He still wanted to know what was going on. "And then what?" he said forcibly, "You expect me to believe you'll just let us go?"

Hallerton looked irritated that they were even still discussing us, but leaned closer to the camera to continue speaking. "We didn't choose you for this job, Captain, we left that down to Mr. Yutani, and it is somewhat inconvenient to us that he chose you as courier. All things considered it really isn't practical for us to arrest you right now, but if I were you I'd stop asking questions and just be grateful for that."

Being told to do stop asking questions wasn't an order Mal was prepared to obey. "Now, it being impractical to arrest us might be something I can understand," Mal said, "But those two war frigates you got with you suggest you weren't planning on just letting us walk away. It ain't much incentive to me to hand this thing over if I believe you'll just start shooting at us the moment you have what you want, so why do you think I'd give it to you?"

Hallerton leaned back in his chair again, continuing to survey Mal with a cool stare. "Let me be honest with you, Captain," he said, "All I want is to get what I came here for and leave. I really don't have much of an inclination to open fire on you right now."

To Mal, that really didn't make sense. "That why you brought two warships with you?" he asked.

"They're more of a precaution," Hallerton answered, "Just in case you decide to be…less than co-operative. Truth is, Captain, I personally feel that shooting you down would be something of a waste."

Now that hadn't been what Mal was expecting, and he certainly wasn't sure that he believed it. "Really?" he said sceptically, "_That's _my guarantee? You'd pass up the reward for killing me because it would be a waste?"

Hallerton smirked again. "I'll be rewarded well enough once I've carried out my orders," he said casually. "But Captain, looking at your war record, how you went about revealing Miranda…it's all rather impressive, despite being done in the name of the wrong side. If you'd only stop fighting us then you could be of great service to the Alliance, and certainly surpass undoing all this mess you've made. It would seem a shame to kill you without ever having giving you chance to put right your mistakes."

Mal didn't believe that for a second, and he was struggling to buy that Hallerton believed it either. There had to be some other reason why Hallerton was prepared not to fire at them, but what Mal found most disconcerting was that he couldn't think of an obvious reason why not being shot at would be bad. Of course, Hallerton could just be lying, but why was he making such an effort to be cordial when he could just take what he wanted by force? "Captain," Mal said, giving Hallerton a dark look, "If you genuinely believe that I would _ever _work for the Alliance, then your brain's fried even worse than what your people did to River Tam."

If that had been an attempt to provoke a reaction from the Alliance captain then he didn't rise to it. Instead, Hallerton just leaned forward in his seat again, looking as if he'd grown bored with the conversation "Except of course, Captain, it seems on this occasion you already are. Now, like I said, I'll be down to collect that _Alliance__ property _you are carrying in five minutes. Is that understood?"

Mal looked at him for a few moments, apparently deliberating, and then said abruptly, "Of course, Captain. Five minutes," before reaching out to flick a switch to terminate the video link.

As the screen went black Zoe looked at him, sensing that he was going to be far less obedient than that last sentence had suggested. "Of course? That's it?" she asked, not believing for a second that Mal actually intended to do as he was told. Although she didn't see they had much choice other than to hand it over – and perhaps that was a good thing – she'd never known Mal Reynolds to back down so easily.

"No, that ain't it," Mal answered as he got up and headed to the door. "We ain't giving it to them."

"We ain't?" Zoe said, still trying to work out what he planning. "'Cause I don't see how we're gunna go about avoiding that when we're facing an Alliance cruiser and two armed frigates."

Mal paused before reaching the door and turned to her. "Zoe, look at what they're doing: not telling us what's in the crate, coming out here to pick it up, stopping us ever reaching Copernica. Whatever's going on they're trying to cover it up, just like they did Miranda. And if River's right about what's in that box, then we could be carrying the tools for them to unleash something else just as bad as the pax. I ain't about to hand it over to them."

He did have a point, but Zoe was still cautious. "You really think they'd risk doing something like that, sir? This soon after Miranda leaked?"

"Might be exactly _why _they're doing it," Mal said, stepping through the cockpit door, "Trying to reassert control now that…" he trailed off as he noticed River standing on the other side of the door with her ear pressed against the wall. She had her eyes closed and appeared to be concentrating. "River?" Mal said, a little puzzled as to what she doing, "You hearing anythin' from them? 'Cause any information you can get would be mighty helpful to us right now."

"Shh," River said, not giving a response he could make sense of, "She needs to listen…real…hard."

Mal looked at her for a moment as if he might be about to ask, "Listen to what?" but then decided there wasn't time to try and decipher the answer he might get. Instead he said, "Right, but unless you can tell us what's in that crate you be done listenin' and get ready to fly us out of here quickly."

River opened her eyes and looked at him for a second, then said, "The albatross is ready," before straightening up and stepping through the door in the direction he'd come from.

Taking that to mean she'd understood, Mal turned and continued to hurry back to the cargo bay with Zoe following. She had a feeling he was planning to do something reckless. "Sir, it still doesn't make sense why they'd want to do something like that again. Or how they'd go about doing it with just one small thing in a crate. Or why we're the ones carrying it, for that matter."

"Zoe, there's a lot about this that don't make sense," Mal said as they reached the top of the cargo bay again. "But it ain't coincidence that we were supposed to deliver this thing to Copernica and just as we were considerin' throwing it off the ship they show up out of nowhere to take it off us without even taking a shot at us too. There's something suspicious goin' on here."

"I'm not saying that ain't so," Zoe responded, following him down the steps to the floor, "But how do you plan on escaping the Alliance without handing the crate over? And more to the point, if it's so dangerous do you really think it's a good idea to keep it on board?"

"It being so dangerous is exactly why I don't plan on letting the Alliance get hold of it," Mal said, and before Zoe had chance to say anything back Jayne had shouted out to them from the opposite end of the bay.

"We heard it was the Alliance over the loudspeakers. What's going on?" he said as Mal and Zoe approached.

"Jayne, 'Nara, we're being boarded in less than five minutes," Mal explained as he reached them. "We need to move this crate."

Jayne and Inara both looked confused. "Why? What do they want?" Inara asked, looking worried. "If they're after us aren't we going to run?"

"It's not us they're after. Not this time at least," Mal said, beginning to push the crate over the floor. "They want whatever's in here, and they ain't gunna get it. Jayne, there's another crate back there with ammo in, about the same size as this. Help me switch them round."

Jayne didn't move. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Mal."

"Yeah, well I ain't asking what you think. Just do it," Mal snapped.

Jayne glared at him and seemed to consider for a moment, but in the end still didn't move.

Noticing he was being disobeyed, Mal stopped pushing the crate and shot a fierce glare at the insubordinate mercenary. "Jayne, I'm not gunna tell you again."

Jayne didn't answer back, but Zoe spoke up instead. "Mal, switching the crates won't work. They can scan the contents and they'll know it's the wrong one. I'm not saying I don't see why it's bad, but the only choice we've got is to give them the box."

Mal turned his attention on her. "Zoe, they know we don't have any idea what's in here. All we did is collect a crate from a weapons dealer on Persephone, who's to say it didn't have ammo in it? And if they want to keep it secret they won't check the contents while we're still around. Now radio Kaylee and River and tell them to get ready to move off at full speed. We can still get out of here without giving this thing up."

Zoe stayed put. "Sir, it isn't going to work," she said firmly. As much as she respected Mal as her captain, she wasn't about to obey a stupid order.

Mal looked for a moment like he couldn't quite believe she wasn't taking his side, but then Inara spoke up to reinforce her. "She's right. Whatever it is, it's too dangerous to keep on board and there's no way to fool the Alliance on this. Mal, can we please just hand it over?"

Mal felt completely outnumbered, and when it was by his own crew that didn't sit well with him. "Look," he snapped, "There's isn't time to argue about this. I get why you want it off the ship. I know it's dangerous, but in the hands of the Alliance it could be a thousand times worse. So stop protesting and help me move it!" With the last sentence he slammed his fist down hard on the crate in frustration, and as he did so Inara's eyes widened.

"Mal, get away from the crate," she said urgently.

He just looked at her, a little confused. "'Nara, can we just stop…" he broke off suddenly as a loud banging noise sounded from inside the crate, and he jumped back in surprise. "Ok…" Mal said, staring at the crate in shock. "It wasn't doing that before."

Inara looked at him with a worried expression. "It's been doing that since about five minutes ago," she said, "If you knock on the crate it knocks back."

Mal looked at her and then at Jayne, beginning to think that maybe keeping it on board would be even more dangerous than he'd realised. Jayne met his gaze and nodded. "I don't like it, Mal. If the Alliance want to take it off us, I say we just give it to 'em."

Mal just looked at him, realising that by now it was too late to switch the crates anyway. It seemed he was going to have to hand it over to Hallerton, but that didn't stop him feeling uneasy about what the Alliance were going to do with it.

The next sound they all heard was Kaylee's voice over the intercom. "What's going on? The engine's ready to go at full power but I heard the Alliance radio us over the loudspeakers. What's happening?"

Zoe was closest to the door, and she hurried to the intercom to talk back. As she did so the others heard the sound of the _Meridian_'s docking gear engaging with the outside of the airlock. "We're about to be boarded," Zoe explained to the mechanic, "Stay where you are, I think the Captain's got plans to get us out of here quick soon after."

"Boarded? Why? We're not gunna be arrested, are we?" Kaylee asked back, sounding panicked, and they heard Simon say something in the background.

"No, they're not coming after us for some reason, it's just this strange crate they want," Zoe answered, "Just stand by. I'm hopin' this'll be over with quickly."

There was another sound of knocking from outside the ship as Hallerton's boarding party reached the other side of the airlock. Mal glanced round at the other three before walking to the door controls and hitting the button to open the inner hatch.

Jayne watched him. "Wait," he said, as if something had just occurred to him. "If we give them it now we _do _still get paid, right?"

Mal gave him a look as if to say, "I can't believe _that's _what you're worrying about," but he didn't actually speak before the door in the airlock opened and Captain Hallerton stepped through, followed by about ten armed Alliance soldiers.

"Captain Reynolds," he said as he stepped on board, casting a scornful eye around the cargo bay. He looked over the four _Serenity _crew members in front of him and smirked as he noticed that most of them did indeed seem to have only recently gotten out of bed. "It seems we did catch you at a bad time," he remarked.

"It's as good a time as any," Mal responded coolly.

Hallerton said nothing in response to that, but briefly glanced round the bay once more before his gaze came to rest on the crate that was just a couple of yards away from Mal. He then raised his head to look the Firefly captain in the eye. "I take it that's the cargo you were delivering to us?"

Mal held his gaze, giving the Alliance officer a hard stare. "It is," he answered abruptly.

"Really?" Hallerton said, in a tone that suggested he didn't trust him. Mal wondered if he'd guessed at his plan to switch the crates. "Can you confirm this is the cargo you picked up from Kasuke Yutani five days ago on Persephone?"

Hallerton had spoken it almost as a challenge, and Mal rose to match it. "I can," he said firmly, not breaking eye contact, "That's the crate we collected five days ago from Eavesdown Docks, in the exact same condition as when we picked it up: safe and untampered with."

Hallerton eyed him suspiciously for moment longer, and then gave a brief nod and motioned for one of the accompanying soldiers to check the crate. One of them came forward and lowered his rifle, before taking a digital device off his belt and using it to scan the crate. When he was done he turned to look back at Hallerton and nodded in confirmation that it was what they were after.

With a jerk of his head the Alliance officer signalled for some of the men to collect the crate and carry it on board the _Meridian_, before turning his attention back to Mal. "Thank you for bringing it this far. We'll be taking it with us now," he said with a definite underlying tone of warning in his voice. "Now in reward for the service you've done us on this occasion we'll let you be on your way. However, there are a few conditions. You'll wait for us to be at least outside your visual range before you start to make a move again. Don't think to come anywhere near Copernica any time soon; if you need to refuel I suggest you start making your way towards Rhodes. And you certainly don't try and follow us. If there's any of that you aren't clear on bear in mind I have two armed frigates as an escort." Those sentences had been directed at Mal, but then he turned his attention to Jayne. "You also might want to think about putting that weapon down."

Mal turned to look over to his left, and saw Jayne was stood still holding his gun which he now had levelled at Hallerton. In response, several of the Alliance soldiers had brought up their own rifles to point at the members of _Serenity_'s crew. "Jayne," Mal said in a warning tone, not wanting the situation to get out of hand. Hallerton may have implied that the Alliance weren't about to do anything to harm them, but Mal didn't want to take his chances.

Jayne's eyes flickered over to him briefly but then he returned his attention to Hallerton, holding his ground. "I ain't looking for trouble, but there's still the issue of us being paid," he said aggressively. "We were promised we'd get the money when we finished delivering it, and if you're the people we're delivering it to then you ought to keep your end of the deal."

Hallerton's eyes flashed dangerously, seemingly furious that Jayne had dared to challenge him. "You ought to just be grateful that..." he began to say venomously, but Mal quickly interjected.

"Told you, we need to refuel," he said, and Hallerton stopped speaking and suddenly rounded on him. Mal didn't much like having to ask for money and risk provoking the Alliance officer further, but truth was he needed it. Jayne hadn't exactly gone about asking for it in the most diplomatic way, but he did have a point. "We planned on refueling with the money we got on Copernica," Mal explained to Hallerton, "But if we don't get it and go to Rhodes as you suggested, we'll end up pretty much stranded there. Now if you want us to steer clear of Copernica, it'd be helpful if we could actually afford to get the ship out of this quadrant."

Hallerton glared at him angrily for a few more seconds, but then he appeared to get a hold on himself and forced a smile. "Of course," he said, reaching into his jacket to take out a wallet. "Couldn't have you thinking that the Alliance don't pay people for their service. Three hundred credits, I believe that was the price you negotiated with our client?" He counted out some paper notes, which he then collected up and held out in front of him. He offered them to Mal, not to Jayne, who took them off him somewhat warily.

"Yes, that's what we agreed," Mal said as he accepted the notes, trying to work out why Hallerton had given in so easily. The Alliance captain must surely know he could just fly away from here without paying them a penny, and there'd be nothing Mal or the others could do about it. But yet for some reason he'd decided to uphold Yutani's end of the bargain.

Hallerton then turned his attention to Jayne, and seemed to be smirking as he noticed how his actions had confused the crew. "Satisfied?" he asked somewhat condescendingly.

Jayne's eyes narrowed slightly, a little suspicious that that had been so easy, but then he looked at the wad of notes in Mal's hand and gave a grunt of approval.

"Very well," Hallerton said before looking back at Mal. "In that case we will be leaving now. Remember my instructions, and don't imagine this is the last you'll be seeing of us." He turned to follow the soldiers that had carried the crate through the door, but then all of them heard a sound they hadn't been expecting.

"It's gone quiet. They've turned the volume off."

At the sound of the young girl's voice everyone turned to see River Tam standing in the doorway at the back of the cargo bay, looking out at them with an expression of confusion.

Captain Hallerton raised an eyebrow. "So she is still on board?" he said in a tone that seemed mildly amused. "I wonder what else you haven't been telling me, Captain."

Mal turned back to him with a fierce glare. He was wishing like crazy that River hadn't for some reason decided to leave the bridge and come back down here, but there was no way he was going to let the Alliance do anything that might harm her more now. "She isn't what you're here for," he snarled at Hallerton, "You have what you wanted, now just go."

Hallerton's eyes narrowed and he shot Mal a dangerous look, but then one of the Alliance soldiers came back through the door and whispered something in his ear. The captain listened in silence for a few seconds, and then he gave a nod and gestured for the soldier to leave, his expression grim. "Alright," he said, addressing Mal. "We'll leave. For now."

Some of the soldiers remaining in the cargo bay headed for the door and Hallerton followed them, but he paused to look back for a moment before reaching the exit. He stared straight at River who looked him right back in the eye.

"What did you do?" she said. "She can't hear. You made everything go fuzzy."

Hallerton raised an eyebrow again and then looked at Mal, who was glaring at him. Mal had no clue what River meant, but he did know that before he tried to find out he wanted Hallerton off his ship.

The Alliance captain smirked at him. "I must commend you, Captain, not many people would take on board someone as crazy as her," he taunted. "Although some would say you're just as crazy yourself to put up with all the trouble she's brought you." Those were his final words before he left the ship and closed the door behind him, leaving the crew of _Serenity _to listen to the sound of the docking gear disconnecting and wondering what the hell had just happened.

**A/N: That was so much longer than expected, but I did manage to cover all the points that I wanted to. Sorry if there were any parts of it that didn't make complete sense, but I will try and clarify everything in future chapters. I'm trying to get the balance between making sure people can follow the story and not giving away too much, and I'm hoping this will be the last 'intro' chapter. Next time I plan to get to the main 'meat' of the story and have plenty more action and give the plot a much clearer direction.**

****Update 9/1/14: It's been quite some time. Almost two years, in fact, and I am somewhat disappointed with myself that I haven't updated since then.** However, I've now got far too many unfinished or WIP stories that I can never hope to keep up with, and since I've left this dormant for so long I'm sorry to say that this falls into that category. I have therefore marked it as complete (although I wish there's was an option to more accurately label it "on hiatus", "abandoned" or "dormant") as I believe that these first five few chapters can be read as a complete story in themselves, if it is to be assumed that this is indeed the end of the Firefly crew's involvement with this dangerous shipment. I'm sure it's obvious that that was never the original intent for the story, but unfortunately, if you want to read something that seems at least self-contained, if not completely satisfying, then this is the chapter you should end on.  
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**If I am being honest, I terribly overcomplicated the plot I had planned for this story, making it almost unwriteable. Trying to close every plot hole and cover every base made for these very long and much too slowly paced five chapters that were only ever intended to be an opening, and left me struggling terribly with exposition on top of characterisations I already found quite tricky. I should have just played the story straight, instead of trying to add a hundred and one twists and turns that meant hiding so much from the reader I didn't know how to pitch what remained correctly, and being forced to replan and rethink it all a dozen times because it kept becoming too convoluted.**

**I wish I'd just jumped straight in with the action and gone with a good and interesting but straightforward plot, because the action was the part that I most wanted to write, yet I overreached and got bogged down with too many intricate plot twists that I'm sure would in the long run would prove less enjoyable than some well written action. For that reason, if I do decide to continue this story, I will most likely start completely from scratch. The plot of this up until now can be taken as a story in itself, as I do believe it's possible to end it here, but it may or may not have any bearing on the plot of a reworked version of this story I may possibly one day write.**

**If you do wish to read on past this point, then I believe the next chapter will certainly give you some clues as to where I originally intended to go, but at this point I have replanned this story so many times that I think anyone's interpretation of where it may lead would be just as good a guess as mine. For everyone who's reviewed, thank you immensely, and I am truly sorry to anyone who wanted further updates on this. I can't promise anything, but I am leaving open the possibility that I will take a fresh shot at this at some point in future, and make a much cleaner and sharper job of it.**


	6. First Specimen

**A/N: I'm not really supposed to be writing this since I have a swollen wrist, but I figured as long as I kept the chapter short and kept taking ibuprofen it should be okay.**

**I've got to say my enthusiasm for this story dwindled a bit after I had a rethink of it and realised how much more introducing and establishing things I was going to have to do before the crew of _Serenity _actually encounter xenomorphs, and it put me off a little bit as that's the part I most want to write. But I'm going to persevere. If I get through the slightly harder and less interesting parts then the reward will be the good bits later on.**

**Thanks to JoeEngland and the anon for their reviews, which have definitely been helpful in drawing certain aspects of this to my attention. It's all important stuff that I'll make sure to bear in mind for later on.**

_**Chapter Six – First Specimen**_

_Copernica  
>Nine hours later<em>

The Alliance vessel touched down on the hard ground of Copernica, accompanied by one half of its military escort, the other half of which had been deployed elsewhere on the planet a short time earlier. Once the ship had fully landed the loading ramp began to descend, allowing the crew on board to exit the craft into the docking area of the Alliance facility they had arrived in. The first to leave the ship were two men carrying the crate between them, who were escorted by four other soldiers all carrying pulse rifles. Behind them, Captain Hallerton descended the ramp while keeping a watchful eye on the men in front of him, and once he had seen that they'd carried their cargo safely to the ground without dropping it he turned his attention to the two men who were stood waiting for him at the foot of the ramp. One of them was a tall, thickly built black man in Alliance uniform, the other a small middle-aged man with oriental features and wearing a business suit. Both of them had been watching the crate's progress, but once the soldiers carrying it had passed them they both turned their attention to Hallerton.

No salutes were exchanged, as in this context it was unclear which of them if any held a higher rank, but it was the black man who spoke out in greeting. "Captain Hallerton," he said formally.

"Governor Caldwell. Mr Ling," Hallerton replied, nodding at each of them in turn.

As he reached the foot of the ramp the governor spoke again. "You retrieved the cargo safely?"

Hallerton nodded. "The container appears to be undamaged, although the readings we've been taking were higher than expected. However, at this stage in the program that shouldn't be a detriment."

"I would hope not," the Asian man said in response to that. "When negotiating with Mr Yutani I was assured that this is the last specimen that remains from his ancestor's research. If anything goes wrong it will be impossible to replace."

"Nothing will go wrong," Hallerton replied, "I can assure you, Mr Ling, that all aspects of the project have been thoroughly thought out and all eventual outcomes prepared for."

Mr Ling gave him a look that only seemed partially satisfied with that answer as the three of them turned to follow the men carrying the crate through a door that led inside the main body of the facility.

"And Reynolds?" the governor asked as they entered the building.

"Suspicious," Hallerton answered, "Enough so to take the bait, when we're ready to give it him."

Governor Caldwell looked thoughtful for a second. "And when do you expect that will be?" he asked.

Hallerton seemed to consider for a moment. "Looking over some of the files from the old research, my scientists have told me their best estimates are at about three weeks."

Mr Ling gave a nod of agreement at that answer. "Yes, I've also been reviewing the files Mr Yutani provided me with during our negotiations, and three weeks would appear to be a reasonable estimate," he said, before continuing in a slightly more critical tone. "However, I've also been looking in further detail at all the records remaining from the old research, and I and the other board members at Blue Sun still feel this is a very high risk investment. All previous research projects of this kind have ended badly, and if this program were to turn out the same way then not only would it be a huge financial loss to my company, but your government could face even further damage to its authority and credibility. I believe that is exactly what you were hoping to counter with this project in the first place. Therefore I trust that backup and safety procedures have been far better planned out than in the previous projects run by Weyland-Yutani."

Again, Hallerton nodded in confirmation. "Yes, Mr Ling, they are. Numerous recovery protocols have been drawn up for in the event of the primary plan failing, several backup plans are in place to ensure the project is still retrievable. We also have a much greater military involvement than in previous experiments as an extra precaution."

Mr Ling still didn't look completely satisfied, but Hallerton doubted that he would be until he had seen for himself that the project was working. Hallerton himself shared the same worries – he'd been placed in charge of running something very important here, and there was a lot at stake for him if it went wrong. While more senior officers were busy trying to mitigate the damage inflicted by the Miranda fiasco, Hallerton had been put in charge of running what was for now a small but expensive covert project that was intended to be as low-key as possible. However, if it were to be successful then not only could it potentially reinstate the Alliance's authority even more strongly than before, it would also make Hallerton's career.

But on the flip side, if it went badly it could completely ruin him. Assuming, of course, that it didn't kill him in the first place. Hallerton may be in charge of running this thing, but he was still answerable to powers much higher up and he knew full well what the consequences of failure would be. That made him just as anxious to see this turn out well as Mr Ling and the other investors at Blue Sun were.

They'd reached a point inside the building now where there was a metal door leading off the corridor on the right hand side, which was opened by one of the soldiers to allow the men carrying the crate to pass through. As the crate's escort shut the door behind them, Hallerton, Ling and the governor continued a short way down the corridor to another door at the end, which they themselves passed through. On the other side they found themselves in a darkened room with an array of controls and computer screens running down the left wall, whereas in the right hand wall was a long, reinforced glass screen which allowed them to see through into the room beyond.

Two men were already sat in the room working at the computers on the left, and as the three men entered they got up to give a salute. Hallerton just gave a dismissive wave of his hand and said, "Get back to work." He didn't have time for formalities when they were at such a crucial stage in the program.

Crossing over to the glass screen, Hallerton, Caldwell and Ling looked through to see where the small group of soldiers were just carrying the crate into the room. Looking down towards the far end of the room a few metres away from where the soldiers were, they could see two scientists wearing white coats standing beside a metal table with a man laid on top of it, who was bound down with straps around his wrists and ankles. They couldn't hear any of what was going on in the room as the glass was soundproofed, but judging by the expression on the man's face he was absolutely terrified.

Hallerton turned to the governor. "I take it that's the test subject then?"

Caldwell nodded. "Yes, taken from the local prison population. The selection process was of course completely random, although looking at what he's in for we could have chosen a less deserving inmate."

"Yes, I read the files," Hallerton said, surveying the man on the table with a cold expression. The man seemed to have noticed he was being watched and stared back at Hallerton with a look that seemed more scared than ever. "Embezzlement and theft are the least of his convictions. He's a former plantation worker from Beylix, I believe. Alec O…"

"No names," the governor suddenly interrupted him. "They give up their right to a name they commit a crime. They just have numbers. This is inmate number 76402."

"Of course, governor," Hallerton said, giving number seven one final cold glare before turning his attention back to the soldiers, who had set the crate down in the centre of the room and were now standing in a circle around it awaiting instructions. Hallerton pressed a button at the bottom of the glass screen to allow him to talk to the men on the other side. "You know your orders. Take care when opening the crate; we've been detecting more activity from the specimen than expected."

He shut down the comms link before any of the men had chance to reply, but they gave a few nods to show they understood. Two of them stepped forward in order to open the crate, whereas the others stood round with their weapons raised. Noticing this, Mr Ling took a concerned step closer to Hallerton and said, "Captain, dangerous or not, that is a highly valuable specimen. Are you really prepared to let them open fire?"

"They won't get chance," Hallerton replied in a tone of complete self assurance.

Mr Ling frowned but returned to watching the proceedings as the two men undid the various locks and fastenings on the crate and then raised the lid to slide it off the box, before setting it down on the floor beside it. Inside the observation room, all three onlookers leaned closer to the glass to get a better view of what was inside.

In the middle of a plastic tray that kept the contents steady inside the box was an ovoid object, with coarse white outer skin and several flaps at the top that had folded back to reveal the dark pinkish flesh inside. The egg appeared to have been hollowed out as if it once contained something that was now gone, and all that remained was a viscous residue of mucus that coated the inside of the shell.

One of the soldiers leaned over the box and frowned as he saw its contents. He put up a hand to activate the comms unit on his collar that would allow him to speak directly to the observation room. "Sir, the egg's already hatched. There doesn't appear to be anything else in here, sir."

Hallerton didn't respond, but he knew he didn't need to. A moment after the soldier had spoken there was a sudden movement from the crate lid that was resting on the floor as something shot out from under it. In their surprise a couple of the soldiers opened fire on the spider-like creature that had revealed itself, but as Hallerton had predicted they didn't have chance to do any damage. The bullets harmlessly chipped the floor as the creature successfully dodged them, moving far too fast for any of the soldiers to take proper aim, and suddenly launched itself at one of the men standing nearby. With a yell the man dropped his gun as he put up his hands to protect himself, but he wasn't quick enough to stop the thing from landing on his face and wrapping its legs around his head.

He fell to the floor and one of the other men dropped his own gun and went to him, attempting to pull the thing off with his bare hands, but Hallerton pressed the comms button again and intervened. "Leave him." When the soldier didn't respond immediately Hallerton repeated the order in a tone that was even more cold and authoritative. "Leave him."

The soldier pulled back for a moment, looking a little hesitant to do as he was instructed and sure he'd misunderstood the order. "Sir?"

"There's nothing you can do to help him now. He may as well serve his purpose," Hallerton said in a voice that was completely cool and unaffected. "Get him to the lab."

All of the remaining soldiers turned to look at their commander through the glass, shocked by the orders they were being given and reluctant to let something like this happen to their comrade. However, as they realised they couldn't disobey a direct order they quickly jumped to it, and two of them picked up the fallen soldier off the floor to carry him out of the room to the facility's laboratory.

Hallerton allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction. He'd expected something like this to happen. They'd anticipated it taking longer for the creature to wake up and hatch after the decades it had been kept in cryogenics, but when it had been intermittently banging against the walls of its container on the journey here Hallerton had suspected it was already awake. It was a little inconvenient for one of his own men to become the host rather than the prisoner they'd prepared, but ultimately it didn't matter _who _served as the host, only that there was one. Which meant that thus far everything was going as planned.

The captain turned his attention to the prisoner strapped to the table and pressed the comms button again. "Well, prisoner number seven, it looks like this is your lucky day," he said mockingly. Number seven stared back at him, looking far from relieved. After what he'd just witnessed he was even more confused and terrified.

"I'll have someone arrange to take him back to the prison," the governor said to Hallerton, who nodded in approval.

"Good, but keep him in solitary for now. I don't want him discussing this with the other prisoners. He won't be any good to us today, but I'm sure we'll have a use for him later."

The governor gave a sadistic grin. "He certainly will. Just like all those other criminals we have in waiting," he said, before turning to find some more of the military personnel on the base who could escort number seven back to his cell.

Mr Ling looked at Hallerton and raised an eyebrow. "You claim to have this all planned out, captain, but I doubt that was part of your plans."

"I suppose you could call it a _qingwei de ying shang,_" Hallerton said, not sounding at all worried, "But it hasn't slowed down our progress."

"That is good to hear," Ling replied, "But how certain are you that things will continue to go as you intend? Is Reynolds certain to take the bait?"

Hallerton smiled to himself in anticipation of what his plans meant for the Firefly captain, and nodded in answer. "He's not an idiot. He'll be suspicious and try to second guess us, but we'll always be one step ahead of him."

Still far from completely assured, Mr Ling said, "I would hope that you are. Your government has underestimated him before, which is the reason you find yourselves in this mess."

Hallerton narrowed his eyes slightly, not liking the way he was being spoken to, but he kept his response polite. "And I have no intention of repeating those mistakes," he said before continuing, "Believe me Mr Ling, the only satisfaction I get out of letting Reynolds walk away now is from knowing what's in store for him later. Now…" he said, beginning to lead the businessman out of the observation room, "If you wish to oversee the progress of the rest of this experiment we have a test subject in the laboratory for you to see to…"

**A/N: I'm not sure how much sense that made. I'm pretty sure that after I get the next chapter up everyone will be able to understand it, but I'm not sure how much sense it makes on its own. I don't want to spell things out for the reader but I'm not sure if I've given you enough to work it out for yourselves, so if I haven't please let me know and I'll work on fixing it.**

**And hey, the chapter turned out not being so short after all. Well, I've written it now. Too late to do anything about it.  
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**Chinese translations  
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**_qingwei de ying shang = _slight mishap**

**Update 9/1/14: If you've read the updated A/N on the previous chapter then you'll be aware that this version of the story unfortunately won't be continuing beyond this point, and the first five chapters are what should be taken as the entirety of the story if you're able to subscribe to the interpretation that Mal and Hallerton won't be meeting again. This chapter I think quite clearly shows that isn't how things would have gone, but I'm sorry to say that the continuation won't be being written now. It is possible I may give this story another go in future, but the plot will most likely undergo thorough revisions and I will be starting from scratch, unless I can think of a way of continuing from this point that doesn't have the ridiculous number of plot twists I tried to work in. This story does need simplifying and editing, and I'm certainly not ruling out the possibility of doing that at some point. I am very sorry I don't have it planned for any time in the foreseeable future, but I am still very fond of the idea behind this story and I don't think I'll be leaving it alone forever, and I'm very grateful to everybody who has read and reviewed so far. **


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